Alaska Wilderness Leaguehttp://www.alaskawild.org
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:44:02 +0000en-UShourly1Alaska, Up Close And Personalhttp://www.alaskawild.org/alaska-up-close-and-personal/
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:44:02 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6656Last month I had the opportunity to visit Alaska for the first time, and it was more beautiful and eye opening than it was cold – and I was there in January!

My visit focused on supporting efforts in Anchorage to show resistance to the Trump administration’s draft proposed offshore drilling program, doing so by organizing around a public meeting on the issue.

Unfortunately, the government shutdown from January 20-22 was brief but the consequences were far-reaching. Far enough to reach Anchorage, Alaska, where a public meeting had been scheduled for January 23 to give the public an opportunity to learn more about the offshore drilling program. The meeting was postponed at the last minute – just two days before my trip – and rescheduled for later this month due to the shutdown.

What’s more unfortunate, though, is that this meeting is the only chance for Alaskans to provide input on and learn more about a draft proposed program that would open nearly all coastal Alaska waters to development. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has called for 19 lease sales over the next five years in 14 of 15 offshore leasing areas – all but the North Aleutian Basin in Bristol Bay.

The Arctic Ocean is a target in the Trump administration’s draft five-year plan. Here, a bowhead whale slips below the waters of the Chukchi Sea. (Steven Kazlowski / www.lefteyepro.com)

Even without the public meeting, my incredible team of campaigners and organizers were determined to offer Anchorage the opportunity to ask questions and share testimony on the offshore drilling proposal. So we decided to continue on with holding our own open meeting.

But before that would happen, I still had a weekend to tackle. I was determined to pack in as much Alaska-style fun as possible, and thankfully my friends in Anchorage seemed equally as determined to convert me from a city girl to a mountaineer.

Before Alaska, I had seen mountains: the soft-peaked Appalachians, Central American jungle volcanoes and winding Middle Eastern cliffs. But the sharp, snow-peaked beasts surrounding Anchorage are entirely different. I thought I understood the draw of living around mountains, until I saw the Chugach and the Talkeetnas up close and personal. I think I’m closer to getting it now.

My trip happened to coincide with Women’s Marches all over the country, Anchorage included. Having been one of 500,000 at the DC march in 2017, I was excited to experience the energy of a different city on a similar mission. Anchorage showed up in force, even with temps well below freezing. A large crowd with colorful signs to my right and mountains to my left. It was wonderful and inspiring and really, really rad.

Aside from the march, we went hiking in Palmer, my first time hiking in January-in-Alaska kind of cold. With microspikes and layers galore, we ascended Lazy Mountain. We saw a bald eagle skeptically eyeing us as we paused to take in the view. Pioneer Mountain stood more than 6,000 feet tall across the Mat-Su Valley. I said wow…a lot…mesmerized by the vistas and how I was able to shed down to my sweat-soaked base layer despite it being just 10 degrees.

Hiking on Lazy Mountain with the amazing Megan Reschke, our Public Land and Water Organizer, with Pioneer Mountain in the background. (Noa Banayan / Alaska Wilderness League)

The, on the day of the public meeting, we brought the court reporter and snacks, and Anchorage showed up with sense of community and deeply thoughtful insight and concern for their state. I learned a lot more about Alaska, and more importantly, Alaskans, than I thought possible in a few hours.

There’s this incredibly strong sense of unity and pride behind “Alaskan” that I have yet to see elsewhere. By the same token, I learned there’s frustration behind the narrative pushed on the state by the industry and outside forces, that Alaska is for exploiting over enjoying. The Alaskans I met know the beast that is the fossil fuel industry, and they don’t take these fights lightly.

There were questions that required answers on the spot, answers we didn’t always have like:

Why did Florida get an ‘exemption’ when Alaska’s coastal economies are just as vibrant and reliable?

How can we engage other communities when BOEM will not even hold meetings near the Arctic?

Inside our public meeting. (Noa Banayan / Alaska Wilderness League)

As we chatted, many took the opportunity to share with me their favorite trails and sights, should I have the time. Despite only having one day left, their countless recommendations showed me what they most value about their state: the proximity to wild places and the peace that comes with adventure.

Since returning to DC, these landscapes have become a mental screensaver that reminds me of why I come in to work every day. Those views are just a fraction of the beauty and history that we work to protect at Alaska Wilderness League, and that beauty is something I’m only just beginning to understand.

Looking down on Mat-Su Valley from on top of Lazy Mountain. (Noa Banayan / Alaska Wilderness League)

Those of us that find inspiration in the sight of a bald eagle perched on a mountain cannot sit back and let these places, and the values they represent, be exploited for resources we do not need.

To threaten public waters and lands with drilling is an injustice. It is an injustice to the native communities that for thousands of years have relied on subsistence hunting and fishing. It’s an injustice to our future generations of curious explorers that will yearn, like I do today, to experience true wilderness. For the sake of these communities and our future generations, and to allow more people that “wow is this real” moment, we have to move beyond oil and gas.

Make your voice heard on the offshore drilling plan:

]]>Roads? Not In This Neck Of The Woodshttp://www.alaskawild.org/roads-not-in-this-neck-of-the-woods/
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 17:10:23 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6625Even as it appears we may have avoided another government shutdown, the Tongass National Forest remains potentially on the chopping block, and I can’t help but reflect back on my last trip to the Tongass in southeast Alaska.

When I think of the Tongass, I see icy glaciers, breathtaking mountains and lush forest as far as the eye can see. Wildlife abounds, including bears, eagles, beavers and porcupines, just to name a few. But I also recall the effects of climate change, most notably on the forest’s massive but receding glaciers. And I recall that amidst all that beauty, the results of decades of old-growth logging are visible throughout the forest.

The thriving life found on the myriad of hikes I did close to Juneau was a great reminder – the Tongass really is America’s rainforest. And after all that the Tongass continues to give Alaska – endless recreation opportunities, beautiful tourist destinations and bountiful salmon runs – I just can’t imagine how the Alaska delegation could sacrifice the Tongass National Forest for the sake of a few timber mills. For decades, industrial scale old-growth logging has taken place in America’s largest temperate rainforest. More than 1 million acres have been logged to date, with stands of trees that are up to 600 years old destroyed for short term economic gain.

A clear-cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. (Alaska Wilderness League)

The U.S. Forest Service has taken action to end old growth logging; however, these protections are under attack today. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is trying to ram through two Tongass riders on moving legislation, including the Congressional budget, and both would put the Tongass National Forest at risk.

One rider would undo the Forest Service’s Tongass Land Management Plan, which was crafted by a diverse set of stakeholders in southeast Alaska and works to transition the timber industry out of old-growth logging.

The second rider would exempt Alaska’s two national forests – the Tongass and Chugach – from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This policy – in place for almost two decades – has successfully protected our remaining, pristine forests not only in Alaska, but also nationwide, by ending taxpayer subsidized road construction in our national forests.

Roadless Rule protections prohibit damaging road construction and prevent old-growth logging in sensitive areas while keeping access open for recreation, wildlife and sustainable economic development. Today, hydropower, mining and other projects continue in the Tongass under the rule. Undoing these protections will put at risk 10 million acres of national forest land in the Tongass alone.

Alaskans and thousands from across the country support protecting the Tongass. Congress needs to say no to any back door deal to put the Tongass forest at risk. Instead, we should prioritize sustainable uses of the forest, so that our generation and those who follow can all equally enjoy the benefits of the Tongass National Forest.

Take action to protect the Tongass National Forest:

Leah Donahey / Alaska Wilderness League

]]>The Fight To Protect The Arctic Refuge Has Just Begunhttp://www.alaskawild.org/the-fight-to-protect-the-arctic-refuge-has-just-begun/
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 21:28:52 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6578Advocates from across Alaska come together to fight for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This piece originally appeared on Patagonia’s Cleanest Line blog.

(Above: Members of the Porcupine caribou herd crossing the Hulahula River in the Arctic Refuge. Caribou travel in groups and migrate at different times: Pregnant females, some yearlings and barren cows are the first to travel north toward the coastal plain, followed by males and the rest of the juveniles. Photo: Florian Schulz)

“Americans have voiced overwhelming support for protecting the Arctic Refuge, and the fight is far from over. If we destroy the Arctic Refuge today, we will never get that wild, unspoiled wilderness back.”—Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia

On December 20, Congress passed the tax bill that included a measure authorizing oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, exposing this fragile and beautiful landscape to the devastation that inevitably comes with exploration and extraction. Tragically, there was no real public debate on the issue. It was snuck past the American people as a means to a political end, and most Americans still don’t know that this pristine landscape, first set aside a half-century ago by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, is now at grave risk of being destroyed. The refuge is, perhaps, our wildest and most intact American ecosystem and home to polar bears, caribou, musk oxen and millions of migratory birds. It is revered by the Gwich’in people, who call it “the sacred place where life begins.” Protecting the Arctic Refuge represents many things to us: the pinnacle of a decades long campaign to save our public lands; a fight for basic human rights; and an effort to save our entire planet from the impacts of fossil fuel driven climate change.

For these reasons, we are more determined than ever to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We stand with our partners and friends in this long effort, and the statements below represent and speak for many of the groups we work with. This is neither the beginning nor the end of the fight—but, it is a turning point, and a time for all Americans to wake up to the reality that, unless we push back hard, our most treasured places will be put on the chopping block.

Young members of the Gwich’in Nation prepare for a traditional dance ceremony at the 14th Gwich’in Gathering in Arctic Village, Alaska. Photo: Kahlil Hudson

“We’ve hit a whole new level of defense and this fight has just begun! We will rise up and protect the Arctic Refuge, the ‘Sacred Place Where Life Begins.’ We will not stop. We will not waiver. We will continue to protect our way of life, as we always have. Our identity is non-negotiable and our human rights inalienable.”

In a Gwich’in creation story, the original people of the Arctic used to be caribou. When they separated, the caribou kept a bit of the human heart and the human kept a bit of the caribou heart. They made an oath that the caribou would always take care of the Gwich’in as long as the Gwich’in would always take care of the caribou. Photo: Florian Schulz

Princess Daazhraii Johnson, Gwich’in writer, organizer and actress

“Passing of this highly unpopular tax bill that opens the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling is an assault upon indigenous human rights and sets a dangerous precedent for how we as humans will treat our remaining intact ecosystems on our planet. All of us must now stand to defend clean water, air, land—all the life sustaining elements of our Mother Earth. We continue to heed the call of ancestors and this land that has provided for the Gwich’in Nation for thousands of years and we recognize our fight has only just begun.”

Musk oxen have been around since the Pleistocene era; along with caribou, they are the only hoofed animals that survived the end of that era (10,000 years ago). Today, they roam the open tundra of the Arctic Refuge in search of vegetation growing under or above the snow. Photo: Florian Schulz

“President Trump’s allies in Congress just dishonored the past by voting to sell the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the highest bidder. If they succeed and oil development destroys one of America’s last wild areas, there is no doubt that history will judge them harshly. Our work today to protect this area just got more difficult, and we will be doubling down in the years ahead. We won’t stop until this truly wild place is protected for current and future generations alike—we know our lands and waters are worth it.”

Polar bears are the only bear species to be considered marine mammals because they depend on the ocean for their food and habitat. They spend far more time at sea than on land. This polar bear is negotiating ice floes in the Beaufort Sea while hunting for seals. Photo: Florian Schulz

“Last August I started a two-week backpacking and packrafting trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with a visit to the expansive oil development in Prudhoe Bay. We saw a few birds, in the shadows of oil rigs. It felt empty, dirty, and void of emotion. The contrast between the sights there, compared to backpacking through the wild, untouched landscape in the Arctic Refuge, is something I can’t get out of my head. The refuge is filled with signs of life everywhere, every day we walked by dozens of caribou antlers sheds, bear scat, and species of birds. We paddled our packrafts as a wolf swam across the river in front of us, just upriver from a cow moose with her calves. We saw signs of life, but very little signs of human life (a few bush plans the whole trip). I’ve covered miles of backcountry in Alaska traveling to each corner of the state through my work as a journalist and photographer. The Arctic Refuge is one of the most pristine, untouched landscapes I’ve ever visited, and I will fight for it, so future generations can have the same experiences I was so lucky to witness.”

The Arctic Refuge offers unparalleled wilderness opportunities, including backpacking, camping, climbing and fishing. It has no phone service, cell phone coverage, campgrounds or ranger stations within its boundaries. Because of its remote nature and potentially extreme conditions, self-reliance is essential and the experience of true adventure is guaranteed. Photo: Florian Schulz

“Wednesday was a dark day for me—the Republicans finally pushed through their horrible tax package which included drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and the sun barely rose up into the sky up here in Alaska. But today on the winter solstice I woke up more motivated than ever to fight back. Luckily, I know I’m not alone. A growing movement of people here in Alaska, led by the Gwich’in Nation, is committed to defending the refuge from the rampant greed and attack on human rights moved forward by this tax package. Where industry tries to go, we will be there, pushing back against drilling efforts that threaten the food security of the Gwich’in people, one of our country’s last great wild places, and our climate. This fight has only just begun.”

Thank you to Kahlil Hudson, director of The Refuge, a short film that tells the story of two Gwich’in women who are continuing the decades-long battle for their people’s survival—and the survival of the wild animals that so faithfully bring them life.

Take the pledge to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

]]>We Will Never Stop Fighting To Protect The Arctichttp://www.alaskawild.org/we-will-never-stop-fighting-to-protect-the-arctic/
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 16:44:02 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6537This post originally appeared on the Campion Advocacy Fund blog following congressional passage of its tax bill, which opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Tom Campion co-founded Zumiez in 1978 and built it into the world’s largest action sports lifestyle retailer, and along with his wife Sonya, started The Campion Foundation in 2005 to protect wilderness, end homelessness and strengthen the nonprofit sector. Tom currently sits on the board of Alaska Wilderness League.

We Will Never Stop Fighting To Protect The Arctic

By Tom Campion

I’ve visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 20 times since 1999. On my trips I’ve witnessed indescribable beauty that I carry with me to this day – sights like 20,000 caribou feeding under the midnight sun, or hundreds of species of birds nesting on the tundra. Life that has evolved over millions of years, free of the influence of humanity. The Arctic Refuge is the wildest place on Earth I’ve ever seen.

These experiences have been on my mind this week as the fight to protect the Arctic Refuge from invasive oil drilling faced its largest setback ever.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: we suffered a significant loss this week. The oil and gas industry and their friends in Congress finally succeeded in paving the way for drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

After decades of successfully fighting off drilling attempts in the Arctic Refuge, how did this happen? They had to attach it to a must-pass massive rewriting of our country’s tax code. They had to make sure it avoided normal rules for passage and debate. They had to lie and mislead about its economic and environmental impact. They had to hold votes at 2 AM on legislation that no one had even seen.

They cut all of these corners because our champions in Congress have proven year after year that a straight up or down vote on drilling in the Arctic Refuge will fail. And the American public overwhelmingly doesn’t think we should be drilling in the Arctic Refuge. But the Republican Congress was willing to ignore the will of the people, ignore the science, ignore the heritage of the Gwich’in people, and ignore common sense and decency so they could lock in votes for unrelated tax cuts.

So, yes, this has been a bad week. But I want you to know that the fight is just beginning.

These votes aren’t the end, they are just the start of a new chapter. Together we must fight this at every opportunity – with science in environmental reviews, with lawyers in courtrooms, and in the press so that drilling advocates are held accountable for what they started this week.

On a trip to the Arctic Refuge several years ago, I was near camp when a Grizzly bear appeared in front of me. We stared at each other, as I was almost certainly the first human the bear had ever encountered. After observing me for a moment, he turned around and sidled off. I watched him all afternoon working his way across the Arctic tundra.

On that day, I stood my ground as a visitor in one of the world’s last untouched wonders. Today, I’m standing my ground again. We aren’t giving up. Not now and not ever.

]]>Our New Year’s Resolution: Protect The Arctic Refugehttp://www.alaskawild.org/our-new-years-resolution-protect-the-arctic-refuge/
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 17:57:26 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6492Mollie Beattie, the first female director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service once said, “What a country chooses to save is what a country chooses to say about itself.”

We Have Only Begun to Fight

Fittingly, the designated wilderness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is named for her and today her words ring especially true watching President Trump and the Alaska delegation take a Rose Garden victory lap. It is hard to understand, in any rational way, how any politician could vote to drill this pristine wildlife refuge at a time when the U.S. has become the world’s largest oil producer and is exporting record amounts of oil overseas. Why, with oil prices relatively low, and when the impacts of climate change are challenging us to transition away from fossil fuels. But this is not a rational political era.

What we do know is that the Arctic Refuge means a lot to so many – the overwhelming majority of Americans have consistently opposed opening its “biological heart” – the Coastal Plain – to development. It provides the calving grounds for the 200,000-strong Porcupine Caribou Herd, denning area for America’s Beaufort Sea population of polar bears, and nesting and staging grounds for millions of migratory birds.

For those who have hiked, camped, paddled or otherwise experienced our nation’s largest and wildest refuge firsthand then you know it offers a wilderness experience not duplicated elsewhere. For me, being in the Refuge has also been extraordinarily spiritual in a way that is hard to express, certainly not in the way lawmakers in D.C. can easily comprehend. For those who haven’t been there but who believe, as Mardy Murie once said, “that something will have gone out of us as a people if we let these last wildernesses go by,” the Arctic Refuge has symbolized national restraint. After all, we have rejected drilling in this remote northeastern corner of Alaska for more than half a century – including in the wake of the OPEC oil embargo, the Exxon Valdez, the Persian Gulf War and after 9/11.

And that is why I can say now with great confidence that this fight is not even close to over. We will protect the birthplace of the Porcupine Caribou. We will protect the sacred lands of the Gwich’in people. And we pledge to hold members of Congress accountable for including Arctic Refuge as a supposed “pay for” for an infinitesimal fraction of the 1.5 trillion deficit exploding tax package,

Winning the Marathon, Not the Sprint

This is not a short race or one act play. The process of permitting and conducting seismic testing, holding lease sales, conducting exploratory drilling and moving on to development can take years under normal circumstances and even longer in harsh Arctic conditions. Add to that the comparatively lower global energy prices and the fact that less expensive alternatives for the industry exist, and the economics of drilling in the Arctic Refuge are questionable at best. In short, the process by which the Trump administration can now advance drilling will play out not over weeks and months, but years, giving us the opportunity to defend the Refuge on multiple fronts.

Arctic terns are among the many migratory birds that nest and raise their young on the Coastal Plain. (Florian Schulz / www. florianschulz.org)

On the legal side, we expect Interior may propose new regulations for seismic exploration, giving the public an early opportunity to speak directly to this administration on Refuge drilling. We will also be bird-dogging Interior at every other step in the administrative process, and we will pursue legal action whenever appropriate.

Even as we advance legal and corporate engagement efforts, we will mount an offensive to not only restore legislative protections but also strengthen them. The Arctic Refuge has long enjoyed bipartisan support. Republican Theodore Roosevelt created our National Wildlife Refuge System and it was Dwight Eisenhower, another Republican, who first protected the Refuge in 1960. Over time, we will build a much stronger base of bipartisan support for protecting the Refuge, both from the prospect of Trump leases sales and in the quest for permanent protection.

To paraphrase Churchill, in the fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge we shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the courts, we shall fight in the corporate boardrooms and in the halls of Congress, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the arena of public opinion, we shall defend our Refuge whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the edge of the Canning River, we shall fight on the Beaufort Sea Coast, we shall fight alongside our Gwich’in partners in defense of their way of life. We shall fight in the streets, district by district and state by state, holding politicians and industry to account. We shall never, never surrender the wildest place left in America.

The Porcupine Caribou Herd in the foothills of the Brooks Range. (Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org)

Join us in the Next Stage of the Fight

If you remain committed to standing with us and our partners all across the conservation movement – and to standing with the Gwich’in people – then consider signing this pledge. We are seeking 200,000 initial signers, the same as the number as the awe-inspiring Porcupine Caribou Herd that depends on the Refuge. You can also donate to the League to help power our legal and other advocacy efforts in defense of America’s last great wilderness. Together we will make sure that the final chapter of this fight is one that would make Molly Beattie and the vast majority of Americans proud.

Take the pledge to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

]]>Adam Kolton Talks Arctic Refuge On The Outdoor Biz Podcasthttp://www.alaskawild.org/adam-kolton-talks-arctic-refuge-on-the-outdoor-biz-podcast/
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 22:15:16 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6466Rick Saez produces the Outdoor Biz Podcast, a once per week podcast where Rick Saez interviews leaders in the Outdoor Recreation Business to get their stories, tips, strategies, and ideas that you can apply and take your Outdoor career or business to the next level.

Intro:

Adam Kolton, the Executive Director for the Alaska Wilderness League, has a strong track record working to protect Arctic Alaska. It is good to know we are in good hands with people like Adam and his team. Adam talks about the headwinds we are up against in Arctic Alaska and how you can get involved at a local level as well as nationally.

Take the pledge to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge below:

]]>GOP Centrists Can Affirm Conservation Legacy of Eisenhower, Roosevelthttp://www.alaskawild.org/todays-gop-ignores-the-conservation-legacy-of-roosevelt-eisenhower/
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 16:31:07 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6379This week marks 57 years since Republican President Dwight Eisenhower first set aside what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But if today’s Republican leaders have their way the Refuge won’t make it to 58, at least not in the condition that President Eisenhower intended it to remain. As his Secretary of Interior Fred Seaton proclaimed:

For the wilderness explorer, whether primarily a fisherman, hunter, photographer or mountain climber, certain portions of the Arctic coast and the north slope river valleys, such as the Canning, Hulahula, Okpilak, Aichilik, Kongakut and Firth, and their great background of lofty mountains, offer a wilderness experience not duplicated elsewhere in our country.

Caribou at the base of the Brooks Range, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org)

The tax bill now being negotiated by a House-Senate Conference Committee includes a controversial Senate provision that would mandate drilling in at least 800,000 acres of the coast and river valleys Eisenhower thought he had protected in perpetuity.

The key question is whether any centrist Republican members of Congress have the courage to draw a line in the tundra and insist that the drilling scheme be removed from the bill. Last week, we were encouraged to see a dozen Republicans in the House send a letter to leadership urging exactly that. It was the kind of letter that gives us some hope that the party of Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt, who created our National Wildlife Refuge System, still has a conservation ethic.

Still, talk can be cheap. President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke claims to be an “unapologetic admirer” of Teddy Roosevelt yet championed the President’s effort to take more land out of protection than any President in history. Senator John McCain once championed the Refuge saying, “As far as ANWR is concerned, I don’t want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world.” Yet today Senator McCain is cheerleading, supporting and continuing to vote for a tax bill that contains the drilling scheme.

So who are the members of the House who can be as tough and far-sighted as Ike and Teddy and make clear that they will not vote for any tax bill with Arctic Refuge drilling? They are people like Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick from Bucks County, PA. He’s been voting consistently for the environment and can be a true conservation hero if he stands up and speaks out here. Take a look at this ad we are running in his and other districts.

The Porcupine Caribou Herd on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mladen Mates / Alaska Wilderness League)

They are people like Congressman Erik Paulsen from St. Paul, Minnesota, an avid outdoorsman who camps, canoes and hikes the Boundary Waters along the Minnesota-Canada border. He should be tough and insistent that the final bill exclude Arctic drilling.

And they are people like Dave Reichert from Washington State. For years he has championed the Refuge, and it was his leadership that played a large role in helping protect it in 2005. He is retiring next year, but is he willing to be a profile in courage again?

We will continue to implore these representatives to protect “America’s last great wilderness.” If they courageously stand in the breach and insist Arctic Refuge drilling be removed from the tax bill before they vote for it, they can not only save the day but will have restored some faith in millions of Americans that the GOP – the Party of Roosevelt and Eisenhower – still has conservation champions in its ranks.

Contact your members of Congress today and tell them to remove Arctic drilling from the tax package.

]]>Protect The Arctic Refuge From Oil Industry Allies In Congresshttp://www.alaskawild.org/protect-the-arctic-refuge-from-oil-industry-allies-in-congress/
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 21:46:27 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6372Author Toni Armstrong lives in St. Louis and serves on the board of Alaska Wilderness League. This piece originally appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Last week, the U.S. Senate voted on a tax reform bill which includes a controversial rider to drill in the biological heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The rationale for adding drilling in the Arctic Refuge to the tax bill was that it would raise revenues and help balance the budget, but the numbers are way off. Average on-shore drilling leases are $34 an acre. Companies would have to bid an average of $2,400 per acre on every single acre of the 1.5 million acre Coastal Plain. Even if every acre of the 1.5 million acres were drilled, which is not realistic, the numbers don’t add up.

Hiking the Coastal Plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Richard Spener Photography)

This drilling debate has raged for nearly 40 years. President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 on his way out, which designated lands in Alaska as national parks, refuges, forests and wilderness areas. But, the fate of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was left in limbo — it would take an act of Congress to open it and an act of Congress to designate it as wilderness. The oil lobby has tried and failed to influence Congress to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling. Today, the Coastal Plain continues to remain in political purgatory, with members of Congress still using the same old tactics to skirt the will of the American people and open up it to drilling.

For me, it is an easy answer: The Arctic Refuge should be protected as wilderness.

Musk ox can be found throughout the Arctic Refuge. (Richard Spener Photography)

For adventurers and wildlife lovers, this is the experience of a lifetime. Conservationist Olaus Murie said it well: “The Arctic Refuge is a little portion of our planet left alone.” My husband and I have visited the Refuge a half-dozen times, dropped off by a small plane in a remote location with our canoes and supplies. We have stood in the midst of 180,000 grunting caribou, their hooves clicking and calves bleating for their mothers. We have experienced standing in this remote place and seen land stretching as far as the eye can see, punctuated by the majestic Brooks Range. And we have observed and photographed a small fraction of the hundreds of species of birds that nest and raise their young in the Arctic Refuge, and eventually migrate through all 50 states.

Proponents say that we need the oil. However, we cannot drill our way to energy security or lower gasoline prices as long as our nation sits on just 3 percent of world oil reserves. It is foolhardy to drill in the Arctic Refuge for any reason, let alone to save just a few pennies on the gallon. Once the Arctic Refuge is lost, it is gone forever.

The Kongakut River winds through the Brooks Range in the Arctic Refuge. (Richard Spener Photography)

We have seen what happens when we drill — just look at the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez disasters. When we drill, we inevitably spill. An oil spill in the fragile Arctic Refuge would devastate the home of the largest denning population of U.S. polar bears and the Gwich’in people who have subsisted on the Porcupine Caribou Herd for millennia.

Alaska is feeling the impacts of fossil fuel development and climate change like no other place on Earth — communities are literally falling into the sea, permafrost is melting, and the government is relocating communities in order to deal with these impacts.

Our leaders have a moral responsibility to protect this iconic place for future generations. Not everyone in their lifetime will visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but if we plunder these places for greed then what becomes of our country? These lands define us and are part of what makes our country great.

A fox searches for food along the tundra. (Richard Spener Photography)

Americans have a legacy of protecting our natural wonders. I can only hope our congressional leaders consider the legacy they are inevitably leaving behind and ensure that Arctic Refuge drilling is kept out of any final tax package.

]]>GOP Tax Bailout Targets The Arctic Refugehttp://www.alaskawild.org/gop-tax-bailout-targets-the-arctic-refuge/
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 22:28:35 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6279(This piece was written and submitted by Susan Sorg, and originally appeared on OneWildLife.) “The sacred place where life begins.” This is how the Gwich’in, the indigenous people who have lived in the Arctic Refuge wilderness for thousands of years, describe their interconnection with this land.

By: Susan Sorg

“The sacred place where life begins.” This is how the Gwich’in, the indigenous people who have lived in the Arctic Refuge wilderness for thousands of years, describe their interconnection with this land. The porcupine caribou that migrate to the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal Plain to give birth every spring are sacred to the Gwich’in. The caribou provide sustenance and food security for the Gwich’in people today, just as they have done for millennia.

About 200,000 porcupine caribou make one of the longest land migrations on the planet, travelling 800 miles round-trip to the Coastal Plain, the ‘biological heart of the Refuge,’ where they give birth to about 40,000 calves each spring.

This is one of the most biologically prolific and diverse wildlife nurseries on the planet, and it now faces its greatest risk.

The GOP tax plan has created a huge deficit in its quest to reduce taxes for the wealthy and corporations; the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has been instructed to ‘find a way’ to generate $1 billion in revenue to offset this deficit. So, at the expense of opening up drilling on the Refuge’s pristine, irreplaceable wilderness, the Senate GOP are moving forward with their plan to open the Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing.

The financial illogic makes this plan more confusing, since Alaska’s average lease sale between 1999 and 2016 was $50 per acre, and the Senate would need $1334 per acre to reach their $1 billion goal (Center for American Progress, 10.10.2017 – “Alaska National Wildlife Refuge 101”).

Thousands of caribou, Arctic fox, polar bears, grizzly bear, lynx, wolves, musk oxen, and wolverines are born on the Refuge—and the Coastal Plain is one of the most biodiverse bird nurseries on Earth with birds migrating from six continents. Over two hundred bird species migrate every spring from Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, South America, and North America to nest and raise their young. Arctic tern migrate 25,000 miles, northern wheatear 26,000 miles, and tundra swans 8,000 miles. The bar-tailed godwit flies the longest nonstop distance over the Pacific—7,200 miles from Alaska to New Zealand.

We’re living in the Anthropocene—the sixth great extinction. Wildlife is going extinct at an exponential rate, and habitat loss and climate change are key reasons why. Eminent biologist E. O. Wilson, author of Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life has begun the movement “Nature Needs Half” to conserve half of Earth’s habitat and halt the dire loss of wildlife. How could government possibly consider a short-sighted tax plan that would allow exploitation of our last real wilderness, irreversibly degrading a critical wildlife ecosystem, with the scientific and technical knowledge we have that supports the transition to renewable energy? Renewable energy is the clear direction that progressive countries are going and the only viable answer to mitigate the deadly consequences of climate change.

Although it’s faced threats throughout the years, the Arctic Refuge has a history of bipartisan support that has rejected drilling. Nearly sixty years ago, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower recognized why we must protect the Arctic Refuge, both for the wildlife that depends on it and infinite future generations of Americans.

We can visit the Arctic Refuge today and see, hear, touch, and feel the power of this natural place as it has always been. Once drilling begins, the damage is irreversible. We cannot let that happen, for so many reasons—for the Gwich’in, the caribou, the wildlife, for ourselves, for the planet.

Susan Sorg is a nature writer passionate for saving habitat and endangered species through activism and citizen science. She hikes, bikes and bird watches in Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. You can follow her blog at https://www.onewildlife.info/blog.

]]>Why You Should Care About The Arctic Refuge – Even If You Never Go Therehttp://www.alaskawild.org/why-you-should-care-about-the-arctic-refuge-even-if-you-never-go-there/
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:25:40 +0000http://www.alaskawild.org/?p=6177The Arctic Refuge is wild and spectacular—and, get this: It belongs to all Americans. Including you. (This piece originally appeared on Outdoor Research.)It’s a sweeping landscape, bursting with wildflowers and framed by the awe-inspiring Brooks Mountain Range. It’s unparalleled throughout the world, and like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park, it deserves to be protected. Americans have fought for decades to keep it that way, but it’s under threat. Why should you care? Here’s a little background about this mind-blowing place, its bipartisan birth, and why we need you to join with us and sign the petition against drilling there.

What exactly is the Arctic Refuge, and why does it exist?

In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt established the first national wildlife refuge. Today, the National Wildlife Refuge System has grown to include 556 national wildlife refuges and 38 wetland management districts, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

A river winds through the Coastal Plain as caribou dot the landscape. (Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org)

Mardy Murie, who is often called the “grandmother of conservation,” in tandem with her husband Olaus were pioneers in the conservation movement and instrumental in the campaign to protect the Arctic Refuge. Their efforts led to the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Range—now known as the Arctic Refuge—in 1960 by Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, who set it aside for its “unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values.”

Democratic President Jimmy Carter expanded the Arctic Refuge in 1980 through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Under ANILCA, Carter renamed the Arctic National Wildlife Range to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expanded its size to 19.6 million acres. Although ANILCA represented a giant step for conservation through what became known as the “great compromise,” the act left the decision about whether to authorize oil and gas development in the Refuge’s Coastal Plain up to a future Congress. This means that it takes an act of Congress to open it for drilling or to take it off the table as wilderness.

Arctic Refuge champions in Congress have fought for decades to protect the Refuge as Wilderness. Representative Morris Udall (D-AZ) introduced the first bill in the House to designate the Coastal Plain as wilderness in 1986, Senator Bill Roth (R-DE) introduced the first version in the Senate in 1987, and both chambers have introduced similar legislation in every session of Congress since.

What’s really so important about the Arctic Refuge and its Coastal Plain?

The Coastal Plain is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge. It’s the birthplace of countless iconic species including wolves, grizzly bears and caribou. Close to 200 species of migratory birds hatch each summer in the Arctic Refuge, and then journey to all 50 states and across six continents. This includes the Arctic tern, which has the longest migration of any bird on the planet.

In the winter, polar bear mothers build dens on the Coastal Plain, where they give birth and nurse their young. The Arctic Refuge has the largest population of polar bears in the United States, and thinning sea ice is shifting them increasingly to den on land in this region, underscoring the importance of the Coastal Plain as critical for polar bears.

Additionally, the Arctic Refuge has sustained the Gwich’in people for thousands of years. The Refuge’s Coastal Plain provides birthing grounds for the Porcupine caribou, which use the unique ecosystem to bear and rear their young. The Porcupine Caribou Herd is 197,000 strong and annually engages in the longest land migration on Earth to the Coastal Plain, where caribou give birth to their calves and life begins anew. The herd uses an area about the size of Wyoming. The Gwich’in people call the Coastal Plain “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins” or “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit,” and the Porcupine caribou are an integral part of their subsistence lifestyle. Protecting the Gwich’in way of life is a matter of basic human rights.

What’s the status of the area now?

The Coastal Plain is currently in a state of political limbo. In January 2015, President Barack Obama announced that it was time to take the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off the table to development. He recommended that Congress protect its sensitive Coastal Plain and other important areas as Wilderness.

The following year, President Obama finalized the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Arctic Refuge and made a transmittal to Congress asking that it protect the Coastal Plain as Wilderness. Congress failed to act and the Coastal Plain remains under threat.

Arctic terns migrate each year to the Coastal Plain. (Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org)

Currently 8 million acres of the Arctic Refuge are federally designated Wilderness – primarily the Mollie Beattie Wilderness Area (south section of the Refuge). The remaining land in the Refuge including the Coastal Plain is now managed as Wilderness based on the Obama CCP.

How is it under threat?

Drilling and seismic exploration both threaten the region. Both the Trump administration and Congress are attempting once more to open this American Serengeti to exploration and drilling. The Department of Interior is planning to re-write the rules to conduct illegal seismic activity in the Coastal Plain. However, only Congress has the authority to open the pristine Coastal Plain of the Refuge to full-scale oil and gas development. This Congress is moving forward with a budget bill that advances drilling in the Arctic Refuge. The effort is aimed at avoiding a filibuster in the Senate and pushing a Refuge drilling provision through without true debate. This is the biggest threat the Refuge has been under in decades. Arctic Refuge oil production would result in a sprawling industrial complex of drilling sites – not limited to 2,000 acres, but instead spread across the entire 1.5 million acres in the biological heart of the Refuge.

Looking down on the Porcupine caribou as they cross the tundra. (Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org)